books.google.ca - With only a yellowing photograph in hand, a young man -- also named Jonathan Safran Foer -- sets out to find the woman who may or may not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Accompanied by an old man haunted by memories of the war; an amorous dog named Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior; and the unforgettable...https://books.google.ca/books/about/Everything_Is_Illuminated.html?id=qa7RMeBCjTwC&utm_source=gb-gplus-shareEverything Is Illuminated

Everything Is Illuminated: A Novel

With only a yellowing photograph in hand, a young man -- also named Jonathan Safran Foer -- sets out to find the woman who may or may not have saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Accompanied by an old man haunted by memories of the war; an amorous dog named Sammy Davis, Junior, Junior; and the unforgettable Alex, a young Ukrainian translator who speaks in a sublimely butchered English, Jonathan is led on a quixotic journey over a devastated landscape and into an unexpected past.

LibraryThing Review

... a book that was as funny as this one. The story, well, it's loaded with memorable scenes and characters. The writing is fluent and engaging as well. A beauty. ... Read full review

It's not really about the plot. - LibraryThing

LibraryThing Review

GingerbreadMan - October 17, 2010 - LibraryThing

... it's bound to get really sad along the way. And it does. It's not really about the plot. This novel is very much structured around form, style and ... Read full review

The ending, however, does the novel a disservice. - LibraryThing

LibraryThing Review

ignorantleafy - September 5, 2006 - LibraryThing

... book is gimmicky, but I found that largely forgivable. The ending, however, does the novel a disservice. In the last twenty pages, the words fall with thuds ... Read full review

And then there is the ending... - LibraryThing

LibraryThing Review

rcooper3589 - January 17, 2007 - LibraryThing

... or "cried," but as a whole the book lacked something for me. And then there is the ending... what a let down! I don't know, maybe I missed something along ... Read full review

Review: Everything Is Illuminated

User Review - Michelle Ganter - Goodreads

I thought I was ready for more adult literature, but I was mistaken with this novel. I had a hard time getting into this book. I didn't find the writing style of Alexander as funny as some of the ...Read full review

Review: Everything is Illuminated & Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Popular passages

Page 206 - And up and down the people go, Gazing where the lilies blow Round an island there below, The island of Shalott. Willows whiten, aspens quiver, Little breezes dusk and shiver Thro' the wave that runs for ever By the island in the river Flowing down to Camelot.

Page 1 - MY LEGAL NAME is Alexander Perchov. But all of my many friends dub me Alex, because that is a more flaccid-to-utter version of my legal name. Mother dubs me Alexi-stop-spleening-me!, because I am always spleening her. If you want to know why I am always spleening her, it is because I am always elsewhere with friends, and disseminating so much currency, and performing so many things that can spleen a mother. Father used to dub me Shapka, for the fur hat I would don even in the summer month. He ceased...

Page 4 - what was the language you studied this year at school?" "Do not dub me Shapka," I said. "Alex," he said, "what was the language you studied this year at school?" "The language of English," I told him. "Are you good and fine at it?

Page 32 - Shapka.) He did not appear like either the Americans I had witnessed in magazines, with yellow hairs and muscles, or the Jews from history books, with no hairs and prominent bones. He was wearing nor blue jeans nor the uniform. In truth, he did not look like anything special at all. I was underwhelmed to the maximum. He must have witnessed the sign I was holding, because he punched me on the shoulder and said, "Alex?

Page 3 - My father toils for a travel agency here in Odessa. It is denominated Heritage Touring. It is for Jewish people, like the hero, who have cravings to leave that ennobled country America, and visit humble towns in Poland and Ukraine. My father's business scores a translator, guide, and driver for the Jews, who try to find places where their families once existed.

About the author (2003)

Jonathan Safran Foer was born in 1977. He is the editor of A Convergence of Birds, and his stories have been published in The Paris Review and The New Yorker. This is his first novel, which appeared on Best Books of 2002 lists internationally, won several literary prizes, including the National Jewish Book Award and The Guardian First Book Award, and has been published in twenty-four countries.